I am not an expert in leadership, nor do I pretend to enlighten anyone with this article because I would not know. Surely it would take many manuals to define everything that a person needs to be a good leader, and I will confine myself to making some reflections on a specific aspect, his attitude; And are not considerations from my personal experience, I would just be missing !, but from what I have learned working with many leaders of different organizations. I have been fortunate to know all kinds of fauna: hake, melons, plums but I have also met people whom I have admired very much for their ability to lead. Lately I have been fortunate to share a lot of time with Mikel, one of them. Observing it and reflecting I have been able to identify 7 aspects that differentiate the absolutely spectacular leaders of the mushrooms that pretend to direct people.
1a. Difference: they have the chip to be at the service of others. There are people who serve to lead and there are others who will never serve as much as they propose. There are bosses who think leadership is telling others what to do and verifying that it is done in a timely and appropriate manner, as if it were the army, but leaders know that their job is to help others to be Better people and better professionals. Having this mentality, this obsession to help others, is an essential requirement. How many people with equipment in charge do you have it? Unfortunately they are a minority because almost everyone thinks about their goals and sees others as a resource that helps them to achieve them. Leadership based on this premise is characterized by control and supervision, selfishness, rigidity, lack of trust and mediocrity, feeling like a threat to anyone who can be better than oneself. When you focus on helping and serving others to grow and develop as people, then it is a brutal and very rewarding job because it manages to bring out the best in each person so that in addition to “knowing” to do things, “they want “Do them putting their best efforts on it. Corporate Social Responsibility is fashionable, but many companies have understood how to make a donation or publicize it; True social responsibility begins by caring, treating well and caring for people who work in a company. That of which the shareholder is the most important, much preached in the best business schools, seems to me a Chinese tale, a catastrophic irresponsibility. First the people, then the customers and finally the shareholder.
2a. Difference: Influence by their way of being. The difference between a large person and a mediocre person is not in their knowledge or experience, it is in their way of being. Cracks know that in order to help others become better, they first have to do a tremendous inner work to improve them. Their role is to influence, inspire, transmit, motivate and so have a way of being marked by values and human virtues that we admire. I do not know a spectacular leader who has not astonished his way of being. It is not about studying a master or having a charge on the card, it is about attitude and way of being; Without human values, the leader is a despot, a tyrant, a dictator. Mark Zuckerberg has a great phrase that says, “I only hire someone to work directly with me if I think I would work for him.”
3a. Difference: you know what is most important in life. There is a phase in Dr. Stephen Covey that I love: “The most important thing in life is that the most important thing is the most important thing.” It is not just a play on words, which it evidently is; Is also a phrase that if you think for a few minutes, you have a lot of background. The basic requirement for people to work well is for them to be happy. It may seem superficial or unsophisticated, but it’s a truth like a piano. We live in the society of the haste, of the already, of the consumption, of the artificial, of the wrapping, in which the opinion is more important than the being and is a race that ends up catching us all and disquieting many because we forget many times Which is important and we end up running all over the place. For people to be happy they have to put in the center of their life what is most important to them. Personally, I think that our Project with capital letters in this life is our family and, in a time of maximum labor demand, we need time to balance our professional life with the staff. Fantastic leaders know this because they are the first to do it and, understanding that work is important but never the most important, generate and promote working environments that help their teams balance their personal and professional lives.
4a. Difference: working with people
4a. Difference: work with people knowing they are volunteers. Many jobs have become a form of modern slavery in which people see their activities as a painful obligation in which they do not have fun or enjoy themselves, in which they feel sad, burned, stressed and have a cup with the phrase ” Finally it’s Friday”. Many leaders have not understood that they work with people who are volunteers, as if it were an NGO, at least in part. We all have a “normative” behavior by which we do everything we have to do so that we do not get the attention: a way to go dressed, a schedule of entry and exit, methodologies and work processes, etc. It is a “compulsory” behavior. But people also have a “spontaneous” behavior, which is the affection that we put to what we do, the desire, the passion, the joy, the effort to want to do things the best we can. And this behavior is 100% voluntary, can not be demanded, the leader has to win, he has to deserve it, because others give it only if he wants to. No one can require a person from his team to put 100% of his desire and joy at work, to leave his skin or to ask the boss if he needs help when he sees him in a hurry; That leaves you or it does not come out to you, and if the boss is a sucker, it is normal not to leave.
5a. Difference: they are nice, pleasant people, who practice the golden rule. In all religions, from Christianity to Buddhism, through Hinduism, Judaism or Islam, absolutely all, the following corollary is preached: “treat others as you would like them to treat you.” It may seem simple and even demagogic, but it is an outsize truth. Life is simple, not easy, but simple; What happens is that many times we love to complicate it or to complicate it. Surely there are very sophisticated models of leadership very useful, but so is this simple sentence that we almost never apply. Some people think that it is very generic, not very concrete. For I give you another, from Mother Teresa of Calcutta: “Let no one ever approach you without leaving you feeling a little better and happier”; To apply it at all times is a very practical thing that sometimes requires taking care of the forms when speaking, or having patience to listen, or being fair to someone when there is no affinity. If this phrase could be applied to you would be a person absolutely apotheosic, but best of all is that for this sentence can apply to you do not depend on anyone, only your decision and personal commitment. We would be better people, better parents, better couples, better friends and better leaders. The people we admire and who help us to be better have a close, pleasant and cheerful treatment, are educated and always take care of the forms. These are basic things, I know, but we are losing them. Luckily, there are some wonderful people, those you know and inside you think, “ole, ole and ole! I want to be like her.” When you think about it, you are in front of a leader.
6a. Difference: make others feel important. They trust people, so they delegate to them, involve them, ask them, make them participate and achieve their commitment. They make them feel important too because they get them to do stratospheric work. Nobody is good for everything, but nobody is useless for everything. Helping people and making them feel important requires first knowing them to know what their gifts are and what activity can best be developed. And patience, a lot of patience! There are people who understand that babies take 9 months to be born, no matter how hard you try and others are like the joke that said, “Lord give me patience, give me patience, but give it to me already!” “Leaders have patience and form, bosses scavengers They go in haste and deform. Cracks have an obsession to seek the good things that others have, because they know they have it, and when they find it, they help, motivate and demand it, trust and put all the means to achieve a brutal performance. And when they do, they recognize and praise them, because they know that in the depths of all people there is the desire to do important things, to contribute something, to feel that they contribute and that they are appreciated. Recognizing a job well done honestly is the biggest motivational kick anyone can get. Then, that person feels valued, committed, grateful, and their performance improves, it is a virtuous circle. There are bosses who believe that there are people whom it is impossible to motivate; What they should think is that there are people who were very motivated until they met them.
7a. Difference: smile. His pleasant deal begins with his face. Smiling is a huge virtue that we do not value enough, such as sense of humor and joy. People who smile and are cheerful are much more productive and generate much more efficient environments. There is a Chinese proverb that says, “the man whose face does not smile, should not open a tent.” It’s a drawer! How many stores would be closed in this country, beginning with the Chinese, who have not understood it either! We should sign people for their joy and dismiss them for their bad character, starting with the leaders. We have lost common sense, how can you pretend to be a good leader with sepia face?